My austere year in second-hand clothes

High-street fashion addict Jade Alice Galston reluctantly forgoes her £100-a-month habit and signs up for 12 months of charity shop cast-offs

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Jade Alice Galston

11 April 2012

Every now and again I feel I should try something new. I have tried everything from kickboxing (I lasted three weeks before I put my back out) to the Atkins diet, which I managed for six hours before gorging myself silly on cereal. But in January 2011 I decided to make a change to the way I shopped — and stuck to it for a whole year.

To starve the greedy little shopping devil inside me, and perhaps even help others along the way, I decided to cut off the blood supply to my wardrobe — the high street — by setting myself a challenge: for 12 months I would only buy clothes from charity shops.

Okay, so it wouldn’t exactly solve world poverty, but then neither does scooping up an armful of cheap clothes in Primark at 8.30 on a Friday morning before starting work.

As much as I hate to admit it, I used to buy masses of stuff I didn’t really need — did I honestly have to have another £20 outfit for Friday night? And in these austere times, when everyone’s purse strings are pulled tight, it seemed an ideal opportunity to rein in my disposable fashion habit — which was costing me more than £100 a month.

First, I set myself some rules. All the clothes I bought had to be thoughtful purchases (no more impulse buys) and from shops where the proceeds go to charity — vintage, or any other variety of second-hand, did not count. I made an exception for underwear. Weirdly enough, I’m not crazy about wearing other people’s knickers.

The first challenge of my new shopping life was to find some “new” work clothes. I’m employed in a high-end hotel, so looking professional in the office is a necessity and attending a meeting looking like a rag-bag was not an option.

In a panic I started scouring the charity shops in my local area, Notting Hill. To my surprise I found most were stocked with a vast supply of smart cast-offs from locals a lot more affluent than me. I was quickly knee-deep in an array of great skirts, jackets and dresses — and even managed to acquire a Gucci blazer for just £21.

Picking up more casual items for the weekend and nights out — including everything from suede and leather skirts to chiffon, floral print tops — was also not a problem. I soon found that other recent high-street styles, including a leather 1920s-style aviator jacket (just £15!), were easily found on the second-hand rails.

In fact, Trinity Hospice in Notting Hill quickly replaced Topshop in my affections when looking for the latest trends, while for evening and event wear I had no hesitation in going all the way out to Henley — I’d heard it has a great stock of vintage gowns.

Even when I left London for work and play I stuck to my oath. So when in Paris on a business trip, I made the effort to travel 20 minutes out of the centre to Ding Fring, a great charity shop near Métro Pyrénées, leaving my colleagues to spend big on the Champs-Elysées.

Again, when in LA a few months later, I kept to my pact. The Goodwill Charity shops dotted around California are like a charity version of TK Maxx, filled with rail after rail of affordable gems. I eventually persuaded a fashionista friend, who was very much anti second–hand, to accompany me and dip her toe in the charity shop paddling pool. She ended up finding an amazing pair of wedges for only $5, which in warm weather she now rarely takes off.

She wasn’t the only one I converted. Throughout the year I tried to encourage as many people as possible to try charity shopping. I even turned one of my most “I don’t touch anything second-hand, and certainly not without using anti-bacterial handwash” into a regular.

What did baffle me, however, was the spectrum of people’s reactions to my austere year. While I converted a few, there were many who looked at me as though I’d decided to lick public phone boxes every day for a year instead. Funnily enough, most of those people would happily buy “vintage, darling”, but for some reason would not dream of setting foot in a charity shop — where I’ve found the clothes are often just as good and a damn sight cheaper.

Not that it has all been plain sailing, forgoing the high street for a whole year was certainly no easy feat. On several occasions, when desperate for a new outfit, I almost cracked and ran for a heady Topshop high. But I steeled myself, and after a few months steering clear of the high street became easier. In fact, my whole shopping mindset was starting to change.

On the rare occasion that I popped into a high-street store with friends (purely to keep them company, of course), I found I could only last a tenth of the time I used to cruising the rails.

I quickly became annoyed with the mound of identical clothes and crowds of people. Something was changing, and I liked it. Rather than snaffling up an instant shopping fix, I found myself only buying pieces I needed — and enjoying tracking them down. These clothes were almost always things that would go the distance, as the quality of the clothes I found in charity shops was much better than I would have previously picked out from the high street. And guess what — I even found that some things in charity shops are donated brand new.

Towards the end of the year it was a relief not to be thinking about my next shopping binge, especially during the sale seasons, when I would have felt obliged to pick through the rails of reduced tat (things nobody else really wants to buy) for a “bargain”. In fact, charity shops have sales too, which are much more graceful affairs than the usual high street scramble.

But by the end of my year it wasn’t only my mindset that had changed, as I had also saved myself a packet. I went from splurging over £100 a month on disposable fashion to a mere — and well-invested — £35 a month on charity buys. An annual saving of around £777.

And aside from easing the pinch on my purse strings, there is also a huge satisfaction in knowing my hard-earned cash has been ploughed into something more purposeful than high-street profits.

It seems charity can not only begin at home, but in your wardrobe.

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JADE'S TOP TIPS AND WHERE TO CHARITY SHOP

Have a good root around: just because a shop doesn’t look that appealing when you first walk in doesn’t mean there aren’t gems to be found.
Many of the larger chain charity shops get deliveries in, so ask the shop assistants when they put out the new stock.
Take a look at the furniture-specific charity shops such as the British Heart Foundation ones. They have some great value vintage and new stuff.
Don’t miss the jewellery counters, usually near the till, if you like unusual pieces.
Charity shops are a great place to pick up interesting pictures and art for your home, or to find frames for pictures you already have.
Don’t just throw away your own unwanted items: give them to your local charity shop.

My favourite shops

Trinity Hospice in Notting Hill (trinityhospice.org.uk/trinity-shop-locations)

Henley Oxfam (oxfamhenley.co.uk)

Fara charity shop on King’s Road (faracharityshops.org)

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